Arkansas Court Tells Ticketmaster It Is Bound By Anti-Scalping Laws

The Arkansas Supreme Court has issued a legal kick to the gut of the fee-happy folks at Ticketmaster and Live Nation, confirming that the ticket seller is bound by the same state laws that prevent scalpers from piling on fees and charging exorbitant prices.

Ticketmaster is the subject of a lawsuit brought by an Arkansas man who says the $49 in fees — on top of the $42.75/ticket — he paid for four tickets to a concert by country singer Jason Aldean violated the provision of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act that forbids the sale of tickets above their face value plus reasonable credit card or handling fees.

The perennial Worst Company In America contender argued that the law is intended to regulate scalpers, and not licensed ticket sellers like Ticketmaster.

The lower court ruled last month that the Act does apply to Ticketmaster, but the matter was booted up to the state Supreme Court for confirmation. There, the panel split 4-3 against Ticketmaster’s petition.

The Supreme Court’s ruling, issued without comment, only confirms its position that licensed ticketing agents are bound by the Act. It does not necessarily mean that the court believes the plaintiff’s claims that Ticketmaster violated the Act. The lawsuit is still pending.

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Thank you Arkansas Supreme Court with dozens of courts left to go.
Seriously, how can it cost $49 dollars to sell a $42.75 dollar ticket?
They are either greedy beyond description or incompetent beyond description.

Does anyone know what it actually costs to operate servers that can handle the load from would-be ticket purchasers when a sale first opens for a really big act? I would really love to see some numbers, because it seems like TM is all servers and a bit of overhead.

No clue, but they obviously don’t spend enough considering the three times I have ever tried to purchase tickets for a big event through them the moment they go on sale the site has crashed on me to the point I just have given up on ever going to any big event.

My understanding is that Ticketmaster is a scapegoat service. The acts want to charge exorbitant fees for their concerts and ticketmaster steps in and charges that fee in two parts for them (the advertised fee and the hidden fee). I don’t think TM is rolling in as much money as the prices would suggest. I think they’re splitting that hidden fee with the acts.

I’m perfectly fine with that. Then I’ll know the full price to buy a ticket and determine if its worth it to me. There have been many shows, where I was on the fence (e.g. $35 for LCD Soundsystem at X venue). Knowing the full price allows me to make an informed decision.

One could argue how much Ticketmaster influences the “face value” of the ticket through their relationships with venues and acts, but certainly they’re the ones who print the “face value” on the actual ticket. So what’s to stop them from just calculating their fees into the face value for tickets sold in Arkansas (and any other socialist states later decide they too hate freedom)?

The manufacture or creator of a product and the retailer are limited in working together when it comes to setting the price. The same principle is at the center of the lawsuit against Apple and a few other digital book publishers, and why a few publishers have chosen to settle with the DOJ.

Good luck, brother. How sweet would it be if 49 states had to pay +25% in fees, but one state only had to pay +2% fees because “reasonable” was interpreted by a judge. I would love that. It would encourage similar laws in the other states.

Personally, I still just don’t understand the mechanism by which Ticketmaster maintains monopoly. How is it possible? All they do is sell scraps of paper on a website. Millions of other websites could do the same. My guess is they maintain their monopoly via payola, graft.

The make agreements with venues that are exclusive AND many are funded with your tax dollars. Ticketmaster and the management companies of these venues then take their corporate welfare and shove it up our asses.

They own exclusive ticketing licences with most major venues in major cities, so even if you wanted to have a free ticketed concert in a major city and distribute the tickets yourself… you’d have to have your fans pay them to give away the tickets. You would also NOT be allowed to physically distribute the tickets yourself (at your own cost). Nor could you fan go to the venue and just pick-up a ticket… not using Ticketmaster servers of bandwidth.

To complicate matters worse most of those major cities have multiple radio stations own by clear channel (an admitted monopoly, thankyou telecom act of 1996 and Mr. Clinton). Clear channel media and Ticketmaster are bed-buddies so if you skip the CC radio-show invite (from a station in that market) or do another station in addition to them (thus the CC station won’t have an exclusive) good luck getting you concert mentioned, advertised, or music played. That is ALL perfectly legal and $hitty beyond belief.
I’ve worked in radio for years and what the telecom act of 1996, Clear Channel, and Ticketmaster has done has created loose-loose for artist and labels. You might say waaa-waaa many folks are rich regardless but what about niche artist or upstart labels… they are both quickly becoming non-existent.

Should the courts rule against Ticketmaster, it won’t matter. Those fees will simply be rolled into the cost of the ticket and hidden from the purchaser.
Frankly, I respect their naked greed. It’s more honest. I don’t like it, but that’s another argument.

At least they’ll be honest about the price of a ticket then. Its not like the cost of selling a ticket is a surprise or some optional fee. I’d much rather see the tickets listed as $100 than $50 with a $50 fee.

It’s ironic, since Ticketmaster would like to roll a lot of those fees into the price of the ticket (since the bulk of the fees go to the bands and venues), but in most cases the promoters won’t let them, since it makes the tickets _look_ cheaper, and lets the bands blame Ticketmaster for the price, while hiding how much they’re getting.

:Consumers seeking tickets to all sorts of events have become increasingly frustrated â€” and sometimes enraged â€” by ticket fees, which can add 30 or 40 percent to the cost of an order, as well as by the lack of other options for buying tickets. But while the brunt of that anger is usually directed at Ticketmaster, other players in the business, like theaters and promoters, collect, and depend on, their share of fees.

“John Scher, a veteran promoter in New York and New Jersey, called String Cheese Incidentâ€™s efforts â€œa righteous cause,â€ but added that in most cases the cost of booking quality acts was so high that promoters cannot afford to forgo their share of ticketing fees, known in the industry as rebates.

â€œThe acts have gotten so greedy across the board, and have made the risk-reward so impossible, that the rebates are very much the lifeblood of promoters,â€ Mr. Scher said. (The bandâ€™s tour is not coming to the Northeast.)”

I know someone who works for ticketmaster and I complained about the fees. He said exactly that…that alot of times it’s the venues and promoters who charge these fees so ticketmaster has to pass it on.

Isn’t there that law for airlines that they need to disclose the ‘true’ cost of the ticket including fees? I think there were articles about Spirit airlines on here regarding that. That law needs to be applied to EVERYTHING. if there’s $50 in fees that I absolutely cannot avoid then on top of the $50 price then the price needs to be advertised as $100. Same goes for cable companies and their box rentals.

So if I’m a scalper all I have to do is start a business and call it say…. Scalpmaster then I could charge whatever i want??? Sounds like Ticket master wants the law to cut the competition but exempt themselves from the scalping rules because their a business and their business is scalping tickets!

I’d love to see reform in ticket sites, but it will never happen. Most NFL teams sell their season tickets directly yo StubHub and the like, legally blocking fans from paying face value. Before the first game, they are available for triple face value, and the teams can announce sellouts. They sold out, all right.
Not much better for concert tix, down to even the smallest venues in church basements on folding chairs. It’s ridiculous, and it’s not like the bands get an extra nickel out of it.
(Oops, I almost said “nickel back”.)